


Catharsis

by PomonaTodd



Category: Chalet School - Elinor M. Brent-Dyer
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-28 19:48:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30144705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PomonaTodd/pseuds/PomonaTodd
Summary: Why do the staff laugh so much at the plays and pantomimes?  Here's a possible answer.
Kudos: 2





	Catharsis

It was almost time for the ritual. Because this was her first year in the community, Mary had experienced this ritual only once before, and she was keen to experience it again. 

Before coming to this isolated community, she had felt free to express emotions, both positive and negative, as ordinary people would. But upon arriving here, she realized that only positive emotions could be expressed, that physical contact was not encouraged, and that honest conversation, even between best friends or spouses, was an impossibility. 

She made polite conversation with those she passed as she went to sit with the other staff, already anticipating the ritual but forcing herself to seem calm. 

The play started. Before Mary came to the community here, she would have thought the play was awful, poorly written and amateurishly acted. She still thought so, if she paused to think about it. But now she didn’t care; she was watching for the beginnings of the ritual.

The clopping of a horse on the stage made the women in the audience alert. Chuckles started as the “horse” - two of the larger actors together - put a smaller actor on their back, and continued to grow as other actors engaged in wordplay. 

The laughing, once started, could not be stopped; the feelings, once given expression, could not be pent up now. As the women in the audience became immersed in the ritual, they shrieked with laughter, allowing themselves to feel emotions that were more extreme than calm friendliness. In the final stages of the ritual, the women clung to each other - the one time touch between friends was allowed in the community - and wept gently. Some natives to the community did not even know why they wept, but Mary did. She wished she could cry more often, but she would have to wait until the next ritualized shedding of emotions. She was glad the Summer Fete was in only two months.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure where this came from - it's a dark take on the Chalet School. It's the first fanfic I've ever posted.


End file.
